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Abstract. One of the most important topics on the international agenda in educational research is to gain an understanding of the processes of educational change in teachers and of the factors that favour or hinder it. Such understanding is, for instance, an essential element in planning and putting into practice initial and ongoing teacher education programs. This article reviews the research on science teachers' educational change. To organize the information, an analogy is made with the process of scientific change, analyzing and evaluating the contributions of the different models taken from the philosophy of science --positivism, Popper's principle of falsifiability, Lakatos' scientific research programs, Laudan's research traditions, Toulmin's evolutionism, and Kuhn's relativism. We conclude the article with the implications for science teacher education.

We describe research carried out with a prospective secondary biology teacher, whom we shall call Miguel. The teacher_s conceptions of the nature of science and of learning and teaching science were analyzed and compared with his classroom practice when teaching science lessons. The data gathering procedures were interviews analyzed by means of cognitive maps and classroom observations. The results reflected Miguel_s relativist conceptions of the nature of science that were consistent with his constructivist orientation in learning and teaching. In the classroom, however, he followed a strategy of transmission of external knowledge based exclusively on teacher explanations, the students being regarded as mere passive receptors of that knowledge. Miguel_s classroom behavior was completely contrary to his conceptions, which were to reinforce the students_ alternative ideas through debate, and not by means of teacher explanation.

Using the responses to open questions, this qualitative study examines the personal metaphors expressed by prospective secondary education teachers, 46 science graduates and 41 economics graduates. The metaphors are classified into the four categories of Leavy, McSorley, and Boté: the behaviourist/transmissive, the cognitivist/constructivist, the situative, and the self-referential. The results showed most metaphors to fall into the behaviourist/transmissive category, followed by the cognitivist/constructivist, self-referential, and situative categories, although some teachers expressed metaphors framed in more than one category. Of the 129 metaphors detected in the study, only one, of a chemistry graduate concerning the equilibrium between reactants, was associated with the prospective teachers' specific undergraduate education. The rest were expressions of their overall vision of teaching and learning, regardless of the speciality.

ResumenEl objetivo de este artículo es demostrar los efectos positivos de la implementación de un programa para desarrollar la competencia emocional en alumnos de primer curso de educación primaria. Para ello se ha tomado como población a alumnos de colegios públicos de la ciudad de Badajoz durante el curso 2012-2013, seleccionando una muestra de 78 alumnos de entre 5 y 7 años, divididos en grupo experimental y grupo control. El procedimiento metodológico seguido se centra en un enfoque cualitativo con dos técnicas de recogida de datos: test sociométrico de amistad y una Escala de Inteligencia Emocional. Se ha diseñado e implementado un programa de inteligencia emocional con los alumnos del grupo experimental, midiendo antes y después de la intervención el nivel de competencia emocional y las relaciones sociales del grupo-clase. Del mismo modo, se han tomado mediciones de la competencia emocional y grado de relaciones sociales de los alumnos del grupo control, que no participó de la intervención. Los resultados demuestran que el programa fue eficiente para incrementar la inteligencia emocional de los alumnos que componen el grupo experimental, mejorando con ésta el grado de amistad y las relaciones sociales del grupo-clase.Palabras clave: desarrollo emocional y afectivo, estudiantes, enseñanza primaria, inteligencia emocional Abstract The aim of this article is to demonstrate the positive effects of the implementation of a program to develop emotional competence in first year students of primary education. This population has been taking as public school students in the city of Badajoz during the course 2012-2013, selecting a sample of 78 pupils aged between 5 and 7 years, divided into experimental group and control group. The methodological procedure focuses on a descriptive-interpretative approach with two data collection techniques: sociometric test and test emotional intelligence. Designed and implemented a program of emotional intelligence with students in the experimental group, measured before and after the intervention the level of emotional competence and social relations of the class group. Similarly, measurements were taken of the degree of emotional competence and social relations of the students in the control group, which did not participate in the intervention. The results show that the program was effective to increase the emotional intelligence of students that make up the experimental group improved with it the degree of friendship and social relations of the class group.Keywords: emotional and affective development, students, primary education, emotional intelligence En el contexto escolar los alumnos se enfrentan diariamente a situaciones en la que tienen que recurrir al uso de las habilidades emocionales para adaptarse de forma adecuada a la escuela, así como para adaptarse al mundo cambiante en el que vivimos, no siendo suficiente con la información y la formación intelectual y en competencias